Kensington Olympia station

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Kensington Olympia
Kensington Olympia underground station entrance
Location
Place Olympia, London
Local authority Kensington & Chelsea
Operations
Station code KPA
Managed by London Overground
Platforms in use 3
Live departures and station information from National Rail
Annual Passenger Usage
2004/05 * 1.159 million
2005/06 * 1.244 million
Transport for London
Zone 2
2005 annual usage 0.799 million †
2007 annual usage 0.952 million †
History
Key dates Opened 1864
Transport for London
List of London stations: Underground | National Rail
† Data from Transport for London [1]
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Kensington Olympia from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.
Portal:Kensington Olympia station
 UK Railways Portal

Kensington Olympia station is a National Rail and London Underground station in West London. On the Underground network it is the terminus of a short branch of the District Line from Earl's Court, although built as part of the Outer Circle; on the main-line railway it is on the West London Line between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction, used by many trains to bypass Central London. The station was first named Kensington; in 1868 it was renamed Addison Road, as central Kensington then got its own station, High Street Kensington; in 1947 it was renamed Kensington (Olympia).

As the railway forms the boundary between two London Boroughs, the southbound platform lies in Kensington and Chelsea while the northbound and London Underground platforms are in Hammersmith and Fulham. The station appears on London Underground maps as "Kensington (Olympia)" although it is referred to on National Rail maps and timetables, and the London Overground-maintained station signage as "Kensington Olympia".

Contents

[edit] Services

[edit] National Rail

National Rail services are provided by London Overground (who manage the station), Southern and CrossCountry. The London Overground service operates between Willesden Junction to the north and Clapham Junction to the south, typically every 30 minutes every day of the week. There are additional peak-period services which continue beyond Willesden Junction to Stratford via the North London Line. Southern operate between Watford Junction and Brighton, via Gatwick Airport, typically once an hour.

CrossCountry operate either two or three trains per day between Brighton and Birmingham New Street, with some trains operating beyond Birmingham to or from Manchester Piccadilly. This service is to cease from December 2008, after the bidders for the CrossCountry franchise were offered the option of removing the route from network. [1] [2]

London Overground
Terminus
 West London Line
National Rail
Wembley Central   Southern
West London Line		   West Brompton
Reading   CrossCountry
Brighton-Manchester Piccadilly
Mondays-Saturdays only		   East Croydon
Former Services
Preceding station Disused railways Following station
West Brompton   West London Line   Uxbridge Road
Shepherd's Bush   L&SWR   Terminus
Terminus   Metropolitan Line   Uxbridge Road


[edit] London Underground

District Line trains serve this station on a short shuttle service from High Street Kensington via Earl's Court (the driver walks to the other end of the train, waits a few minutes, then drives back to Earl's Court). There is one late evening train per day which runs Kensington Olympia, direct to Upminster (indicated in italics below). This station is in London Underground Zone 2. The service operates three or four times per hour, to an irregular pattern.

Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
Terminus District line


On weekdays, the first tube train leaves the station at 07:18 and then they run roughly three or four times an hour as follows;

Hour Minutes past
07: 18 34
08: 08 42 59
09: 16 33 48
10: 04 19 35 52
11: 04 18 34 49
12: 04 19 35 52
13: 04 18 34 49
14: 05 19 35 52
15: 04 20 35 50
16: 08 23 40 58
17: 14 31 48 57
18: 05 22 39
19: 15 36 49
20: 05 19 36 52
21: 04 18 34 48
22: 05 19 34 48 52
23: 19 37 50

[edit] Description

This station is relatively quiet compared to its busy past, although for many years the passenger service was limited to peak-hour main-line trains each way to and from Clapham Junction, and Underground trains during exhibition times only. A large number of freight trains pass through the station, as the West London Line is the main freight route from north of London to the south-east of England and the Channel Tunnel.

Prior to the transfer of Eurostar services to St Pancras International in November 2007, Eurostar trains passed through on their way from Waterloo International to North Pole depot. In the more distant past, Motorail services operated by British Rail used to terminate here, allowing passengers to convey their cars between London and many parts of the country.

The link to the Great Western Main Line (at North Pole Junction, 3 miles to the north), avoiding Paddington station, the western central London terminus, meant that the station was to play an important role in the Cold War should a nuclear exchange have seemed likely. The station was part of the secret plans to evacuate large numbers of civil servants to the Hawthorn, Wiltshire underground nuclear bunker in the period leading up to a nuclear war [3].

Kensington Olympia was also a backup terminus for the Eurostar services in the event that Waterloo station became unusable in an emergency. Until the move to St Pancras, there were immigration facilities kept at Kensington Olympia for this purpose, and possibly also because of the aborted plan to run Eurostar services from regional stations in the UK through to the continent [4] [5].

It is planned to install ticket gates at the station in the near future.

[edit] Gallery

Former station entrance sign, showing the original name

Silverlink EMUs 313122 and 313123 at Kensington (Olympia)

Aerial view of Kensington (Olympia)

Current (right) and former (left) southbound platforms at Kensington (Olympia)

Mainline platforms

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:


[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC News: More trains pledged in shake-up
  2. ^ http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/ams/faqus/#15
  3. ^ File 4
  4. ^ Belgian Branch Line News 1996
  5. ^ House of Commons - Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs - Fifth Report
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Coordinates: 51°29′55″N, 0°12′39″W